Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Today this story surfaced about the queen of mean sticking her fingers into a 40 year after school basketball program for inner city kids. Reuven Blau in the DN does a pretty good job of telling the story. She claimed the gym was in use Sat. from 9-12 but it was stone cold empty the entire time. One must wonder why she would put the screws on a program that has been at John Dewey HS for 40 years. But it is in the DNA of queens of mean.

But then again there was this Dec 6 comment:

Why was the Department of Education’s Office of Investigations (OSI) in
the building all day Wednesday interviewing so many people?

Why indeed? (head on over and read some of the love notes to Ms Elvin.)

The Flames have developed enormous community and political support. If Elvin continues to peddle her bullshit there may be a bigger backlash than she expects, especially if OSI - which we all know is a politically oriented operation - is sticking its nose into her operations.

Foul! Brooklyn hoops group says it's getting booted from home court

The leader of a well-known Brooklyn youth basketball group is whistling a foul on a city principal, saying the kids were abruptly tossed out of their longtime home in a Bensonhurst high school in the middle of the season.

Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily NewsGerard Papa, leader of Flames, a community basketball group that says they are being kicked out of their practice gym.

The leader of a well-known Brooklyn youth basketball group is whistling a foul on a city principal, saying the kids were abruptly tossed out of their longtime home in a Bensonhurst high school.
Gerard Papa, 61, who runs Flames, a basketball tournament and mentoring program for 700 kids ages 8 to 19, says Kathleen Elvin, the principal of John Dewey High School, closed off the school’s secondary gym last Saturday morning, leaving 90 youngsters stranded.
And she’s blocking future Saturday morning games due to a scheduling conflict.
“It’s our home,” Papa said. “What am I supposed to do with these kids for the balance of the season?”
Elvin told the group the space was needed for use by the Public Schools Athletic League.
“We will continue to juggle our Dewey schedule when possible to accommodate the Flames, but right now there just is not enough gym space to handle all of our needs at the same time,” Elvin told Papa in a Dec. 5 email.
Papa said the auxiliary gym was actually empty Saturday morning.
“They practice in the big gym,” he said of the school’s teams.
The school is also hosting a robotics competition on Dec. 20, which will use most of the first floor, including the two basketball courts and the cafeteria, Elvin said.
The school is required to give priority to its own programs and activities, said Department of Education spokeswoman Yuridia Pe na, adding that the city would work to accommodate the basketball program as best it could.
Papa said he should have been warned about the scheduling conflict before the season started in November, rather than finding out on the day itself.

Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily NewsFlames, a community basketball group led by Gerard Papa (top right). The group’s alums include former NBA star Stephon Marbury and current Charlotte Hornets shooting guard Lance Stephenson.

“At the beginning of the school year, she should have called us in — and maybe we could have figured something out,” he said. “She let me send out thousands of cards announcing registration.”
The retired lawyer started the basketball tournament in 1974, and has been using Dewey’s gym as its home for 40 years. The group pays about $10,000 in fees to rent the gym each year, operating on a week-to-week schedule.
The group’s alums include former NBA star Stephon Marbury and current Charlotte Hornets shooting guard Lance Stephenson, who both attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island.
Flames brings together kids from low-income families and various city housing projects throughout Brooklyn .
Some travel more than an hour to attend the two-month training program and tournament.
Officials from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and City Councilman Mark Treyger’s office are trying to broker an agreement.
“Everybody is trying to make this work,” said a source familiar with those talks.
Papa has no plans to look for a new location in middle of the season.
“If your wife doesn’t let you in the house tonight you can go to a hotel, but it’s not your house,” he said. “They don’t legitimately need the space.”rblau@nydailynews.com

3 comments:

I am a John Dewy, HS Alumni and a Flames Parent Alumni. Your article about the Flames Basketball Neighborhood Recreation Program is very informative. I would like to add my opinion about the dire impact of what is happening to Flames. I am African American. I raised my (4)four children in the projects as a single parent. I have only one son. I feared for his existence after he reached of age to go outside alone. If it were not for the Flames Basketball Neighborhood Recreation Program; I believe that I would have lost my son to the violence that took place in the parks. My son needed a safe and supervised place to play with other boys his age. Flames provided such an opportunity for my son. I am certain that my story is not uncommon. Flames was a god-send for me and other parents.

Each parent is required to volunteer some of their time with the Flames. This giving back is also required by the young players. Children learn what they live. The young men who participate in Flames learn about goals and the achievement of their goals. They also learn about the discipline and the consistency that it takes to make their dreams come true. If Flames is not allowed to operate as usual in John Dewey, High School many children will not have the opportunity to experience the excellent lessons, Presently, my son is a member of New York Police Department. He has grown to be responsible, accountable, and community minded and Flames has contributed to this development.

Flames is an excellent basketball program. It is being dismantled and rendered ineffective at John Dewey, High School which has been its home base for many, many, years. This would be a great loss for John Dewey, H.S. and for the many youths who benefit from this program.

Whereas, it is disappointing to learn about the Flames possibly losing their home in JDHS, there are also many other concerns that need immediate attention by those who can make changes. The actions of Principal Elvin toward the Flames is just another example of how staff at JDHS have been treated since her arrival in March 2012. During her principalship, she has not only negatively affected staff morale but has been a detriment to students as well. How so? Students are rarely given consequences or held responsible for violent behavior; marijuana use is prevalent and overt in the boys' bathroom; there was no summons issued to a student when a weapon was discovered in his backpack at scanning, because the incident was written up falsely, as the weapon being "found" rather than it being brought into the building. Ms. Elvin covers up incidences, at the expense of school safety. Lastly, students know that they will earn credits even if they do minimal work and have poor attendance.This is due to the fact that teachers are pressured to have at least an 85% passing rate for each of their classes. EZ-Pass, some teachers call it. It appears to staff in JDHS that Ms. Elvin's primary concern is to create a public image of herself as the one who was able to get Dewey back on track and transform the school with incredible promotion and graduation rates. Only the insiders know that this is a sham and that the students are the ones to pay the price; when they graduate many are ill-prepared for college. Why would a principal manage a school this way? One can only guess. Perhaps it is to earn the personal financial gain ( as she earned in Williamsburg Prep) or perhaps to move up the career ladder. No matter. As for now, the JDHS staff can only hope that the higher powers ( OSI, Superintendent Prayor and Chancellor Farina) take the current situation at JDHS seriously and act accordingly. If not, then they are equally complicit.

This Principal has no principles! She is only obsessed with control and domination of every aspect of the lives of teachers, students, community members, but NOT for their betterment- no, only to see them crushed, humiliated, hopeless, defeated, damaged beyond repair. She is a truly sick individual, whose karma is very, very bad. I applaud the parent who wrote the first comment, and the "insider" who wrote the second- both have seen through the Big Lie that this self-serving mean-spirited senior citizen has perpetrated in the name of "fixing" Dewey: she has brought a home-grown form of Terrorism to what had been a Field of Dreams. She should be taken out with the garbage, not allowed to fester incessantly.

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.